The invention is directed to a long arm quilt and lockstitch machine assembly.
In order for large-area quilts to be produced, long arm quilt machines or assemblies are known nowadays. These machines or assemblies as a baseline comprise a framework having two pairs of rail tracks, disposed orthogonally on top of one another, wherein the rail track lying above is displaceable on the rail track lying below in an orthogonal direction, and a sewing machine is placed on the upper rail track so as, for its part, to be displaceable. In the case of these systems, the sewing machine may be moved either manually in the X-direction and the Y-direction, that is to say that figures may be manually generated, or if and when the upper rail track and the sewing machine that is displaceable thereon each are drivable by motive power by way of one belt, then the movements of the sewing machine may alternatively be controlled by way of a machine controller by the use of a software program. It is thus possible for quilting to be fully automatically performed. It is thus also possible to produce the quilt in a completely automatic manner. Often, the quilt patterns are generated in a largely automatic manner, and hand-made patterns are inserted therebetween. For this purpose, the connections between the sewing machine and the motive drive thereof, and between the upper rail track and the motive drive thereof, must be separated. Separating or decoupling the connections, respectively, between the drive belts and the guide tracks, or separating or decoupling, respectively, the sewing machine from the guide tracks, is known from the prior art.
In the free-hand mode, that is to say in the case in which the sewing machine is completely decoupled from the travel drives, the drive belts are already stationary because decoupling is possible only in the resting state. There is no risk whatsoever to the female or male operator of the sewing machine of contacting driven rotating elements. In the case of the automatic mode in which the sewing machine is moved by two drive motors in the X-direction and the Y-direction, there is however the latent risk of the operator by way of a body part, for example a finger, a hand, the hair, or an item of clothing, to be caught by moving parts, or to be jammed between such moving parts, and to be injured. In the case of such incidents, parts of the long arm quilt and lockstitch machine assembly may also be compromised as a result of overloading.